Name:

Guided Reading & Analysis: Reconstruction,

1863-1877 chapter 15- Reconstruction pp 291-304

Reading Assignment:
Ch. 15 AMSCO or other resource for Period 5.

Purpose:
This guide is not only a place to record notes as you read, but also to provide a
place and structure for reflections and analysis using your noggin (thinking skills)
with new knowledge gained from the reading. This guide, if THOUGHFULLY and
ACURATELY completed in its entirety BOP (Beginning of Period)
by the due date, will earn bonus points. The benefits of such activities, however,
go far beyond quiz help and bonus points. ☺ (graphic created by Rebecca Richardson
using Microsoft clipart)
Mastery of the course and AP exam await all who choose to process the information as they read/receive.
So… young Jedi… what is your choice? Do? Or do not? There is no try.

Directions:
1. Pre-Read: Read the prompts/questions within this guide before you read the chapter.
2. Skim: Flip through the chapter and note titles and subtitles. Look at images and read captions. Get a feel for the content you are about to read.
3. Read/Analyze: Read the chapter. If you have your own copy of AMSCO, Highlight key events and people as you read. Remember, the goal is not
to “fish” for a specific answer(s) to reading guide questions, but to consider questions in order to critically understand what you read!
4. Write Write (do not type) your notes and analysis in the spaces provided. Complete it in INK!

Key Concepts FOR PERIOD 5:

Key Concept 5.1: The United States became more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere,
and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
Key Concept 5.2: Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural, and political issues
led the nation into civil war.
Key Concept 5.3: The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but
left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights.

Section 1 Guided Reading, pp 291-303

1. Intro: Reconstruction, 1863-1877, page 291

Key Concepts &

Main Ideas Notes

Read the Frederick Douglas quote and first two paragraphs of the chapter on page 291.
The Union victory in Summarize the 5 main questions facing the nation at the end of the Civil War.
the Civil War and the
contested 1) Where did the millions of freed slaves go?
Reconstruction of the 2) What would the federal government do to help the former slaves?
South settled the issues 3) Would confederate states be considered free/equal states?
of slavery and 4) What would the south do in response to all of this?
secession, but left 5) How would southerners react to the end of the Civil War?
unresolved many
questions about the
power of the federal What economic sectional conflicts remained in 1865?
government and
citizenship rights. Northerners wanted… Conquering and owning as much land and territory as possible

Southerners wanted…Plantations to farm on and Arguments over use of land

Adapted from R. Richardson

Intro: Reconstruction, 1863-1877 Continued…

Key Concepts &

Main Ideas Notes

The Union victory in Why did the federal government focus more on political change in Reconstruction than economic assistance to freemen and
the Civil War and the aid for infrastructure in the devastated South (where most battles were fought)?
contested #AmericanIdentity!
Reconstruction of the
South settled the issues
of slavery and
secession, but left
unresolved many
questions about the
power of the federal
government and
citizenship rights.

2. Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and Johnson pp 292-294

REMEMBER…As you read the chapter, jot down your notes in the middle column. Consider your notes to be elaborations on the Objectives and
Main Ideas presented in the left column and in the subtitles of the text. INCLUDE IN YOUR NOTES ALL SIGNIFICANT VOCABULARY AND PEOPLE.
After read and take notes, thoughtfully, analyze what you read by answering the questions in the right column. Remember this step is essential to
your processing of information. Completing this guide thoughtfully will increase your retention as well as your comprehension!

Key Concepts &

Main Ideas Notes Analysis

The Civil War Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and Johnson… Throughout his presidency, How did Lincoln address the questions you
and Abraham Lincoln held firmly to the belief that the southern states could not summarized on page 1 of this guide?
Reconstruction constitutionally leave the Union and therefore never did leave. The
Confederates in his view represented only a disloyal minority. After Lincoln’s 1)
altered power
assassination, Andrew Johnson attempted to carry out Lincoln’s plan for the
relationships political Reconstruction of the 11 former states o f the Confederacy.
between the
states and the Lincoln’s Policies…During the war years, Lincoln hoped that the southern
federal states could be reestablished (though technically, in his view, they had never 2)
government and left) by meeting a minimum test of political loyalty.
among the
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, 1863…The president’s
executive,
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction provided for the following: Full
legislative, and presidential pardons would be granted to most southerners who (1) took an 3)
judicial oath of allegiance to the Union and the U.S. Constitution and (2) accepted the
branches, emancipation of slaves. A state government could be reestablished and
ending slavery accepted as legitimate by the U.S. president as soon as at least 10 percent of
and the notion the voters in that state took the loyalty oath.
of a divisible 4)
union, but
Wade-Davis Bill, 1864…Many Republicans in Congress objected to Lin-coln’s
leaving 10 percent plan, arguing that it would allow a supposedly reconstructed state
unresolved government to fall under the domination of disloyal secessionists. In 1864
questions of Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, which proposed far more demanding and 5)
relative power stringent terms for Reconstruction. The bill required 50 percent of the voters
and largely of a state to take a loyalty oath and permitted only non-Confederates to vote
unchanged for a new state constitution. Lincoln refused to sign the bill, pocket-vetoing it
after Congress adjourned. How serious was the conflict between President Identify the controversy in Lincoln’s plan as
social and
Lincoln and the Republican Congress over Reconstruction policy? Historians illustrated by the Wade-Davis Bill. What does
economic still debate this question. In any case, Congress was no doubt ready to this reveal about Northern-Southern relations?
patterns. reassert its powers in 1865, as Congresses traditionally do after a war.

Adapted from R. Richardson

 Freedmen’s Bureau, 1865…In March 1865, Congress created an important
new agency: the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, better
known simply as the Freedmen’s Bureau. The bureau acted as a kind of early
welfare agency, providing food, shelter, and medical aid for those made
destitute by the war—both blacks (chiefly freed slaves) and homeless whites.
At first, the Freedmen’s Bureau had authority to resettle freed blacks on
confiscated farmlands in the South. Its efforts at resettlement, however, were
later frustrated when President Johnson pardoned Confederate owners of the
confiscated lands, and courts then restored most of the lands to their original
owners. The bureau’s greatest success was in education. Under the able
leadership of General Oliver O. Howard, it helped to establish nearly 3,000
schools for freed blacks, including several black colleges. Before federal
funding was stopped in 1870, the bureau’s schools taught an estimated
200,000 African Americans how to read.

Lincoln’s Last Speech…In his last public address, on April 11, 1865, Lincoln
encouraged northerners to accept Louisiana as a reconstructed state.
(Louisiana had already drawn up a new constitution that abolished slavery in
the state and provided for African Americans’ education.) The president also
addressed the question—highly controversial at the time—of whether freedmen
should be granted the right to vote. Lincoln said: “I myself prefer that it were
now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as
soldiers.” Three days later, Lincoln’s evolving plans for Reconstruction were
ended with his assassination. His last speech suggested that, had he lived, he
probably would have moved closer to the position taken by the progressive,
or Radical Republicans. In any event, hope for lasting reform was dealt a
devastating blow by the sudden removal of Lincoln’s intelligent and flexible
leadership.

Three days after Lincoln gave his speech at the White House, he and his wife attended a
showing of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater, without his bodyguard, whom Lincoln
had sent on assignment out of town. During the play, John Wilkes Booth entered Lincoln’s
theater box and shot him in the head. Booth and his co-conspirators had originally plotted
to kidnap Lincoln and ransom him for Confederate prisoners of war, after Grant refused to
allow any further prisoner exchanges. However, as Booth understood that the
Confederacy would lose the war, he changed his plan to an assassination in hopes that
Lincoln’s death would rally the Confederates to continue the war. The group also planned
to kill several other high-level officials in the U.S. government, including Vice President
Andrew Johnson. Only Booth achieved his goal, though one of his co-conspirators
seriously wounded Secretary of State William Seward.

Reconstruction Plans of Lincoln and Johnson continued…

Key Concepts & Main

Ideas Notes Analysis

Adapted from R. Richardson

 Johnson and Reconstruction…Andrew Johnson’s origins were as Support, refute, or modify the following
The Civil War and humble as Lincoln’s. A self-taught tailor, he rose in Tennessee politics statement: The Presidential Plans for
Reconstruction altered by championing the interests of poor whites in their economic conflict Reconstruction reflected the belief that
power relationships with rich planters. Johnson was the only senator from a Confederate the primary goal post-war was to reunite
state who remained loyal to the Union. After Tennessee was occupied the nation. Write a complete thesis, and
between the states and
by Union troops, he was appointed that state’s war governor. Johnson then defend your answer with evidence.
the federal government was a southern Democrat, but Republicans picked him to be Lincoln’s
and among the running mate in 1864 in order to encourage pro-Union Democrats to
executive, legislative, vote for the Union (Republican) party. In one of the accidents of
and judicial branches, history, Johnson became the wrong man for the job. As a white
ending slavery and the supremacist, the new president was bound to clash with Republicans in
notion of a divisible Congress who believed that the war was fought not just to preserve
the Union but also to liberate blacks from slavery.
union, but leaving
unresolved questions of
relative power and
largely unchanged
social and economic
patterns.
Johnson’s Reconstruction Policy…At first, many Republicans in
The 13th Con-g ress welcomed Johnson’s presidency because of his apparent
hatred for the southern aristocrats who had led the Confederacy. In
Amendment
May 1865, Johnson issued his own Reconstruction proclamation that
abolished slavery, was very similar to Lincoln’s 10 percent plan. In addition to Lincoln’s
bringing about the terms, it provided for the disfranchisement (loss of the right to vote
war’s most dramatic and hold office) of (1) all former leaders and officehold-ers of the
social and economic Confederacy and (2) Confederates with more than $20,000 in taxable
change, but the property. However, the president retained the power to grant
exploitative and individual pardons to “disloyal” southerners. This was an escape
clause for the wealthy planters, and Johnson made frequent use of it.
soil-intensive
As a result of the president’s pardons, many former Confederate
sharecropping system leaders were back in office by the fall of 1865.
endured for several
generations.

Southern Governments of 1865…Just eight months after Johnson took

office, all 11 of the ex-Confederate states qualified under the
president’s Recon-struction plan to become functioning parts of the
Union.

Thirteenth Amendment…The southern states drew up constitutions

that repudiated secession, negated the debts of the Confed-erate
government, and ratified the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery.
On the other hand, none of the new constitutions extended voting
rights to blacks. Furthermore, to the dismay of Republicans, former
leaders of the Con-federacy were elected to seats in Congress. For
example, Alexander Stephens, the former Confederate vice president,
was elected U.S. senator from Georgia

Black Codes…The Republicans became further disillusioned with

Johnson when the southern state legislatures adopted Black Codes that
restricted the rights and movements of the newly freed African
Americans. The codes (1) prohibited blacks from either renting land
or borrowing money to buy land; (2) placed freedmen into a form of
semibondage by forcing them, as “vagrants” and “apprentices, ” to sign
Adapted from R. Richardson
 work contracts; and (3) prohibited blacks from testifying against
whites in court. The contract-labor system, in which blacks worked the
cotton fields under white supervision for deferred wages, seemed little
different from slavery. Appalled by reports of what was happening in
the South, Republicans began to ask, “Who won the war?” In early
1866, Congress’ unhappiness with Johnson developed into an open rift
when the northern Republicans in Congress challenged the results of
elections in the South. They refused to seat Alexander Stephens and
other duly elected representatives and senators from ex-Confeder-ate
states

Johnson’s Vetoes…Johnson alienated even moderate Republicans

when, in early 1866, he vetoed two important bills: (1) a bill
increasing the services and protection offered by the Freedmen’s
Bureau and (2) a civil rights bill that nullified the Black Codes and
guaranteed full citizenship and equal rights to blacks.

3. Congressional Reconstruction, pp 295-297

Key Concepts
& Main Ideas Notes Analysis
Was Congressional
Congressional Reconstruction…Reconstruction can be confusing unless we recognize Reconstruction more about
The Civil War that there were three rounds of Reconstruction, not just one. The first round racial equality or political
and (1863–spring 1866) was directed by presidents Lincoln and Johnson who, through power? Explain your answer.
Reconstruction executive powers, restored the 11 ex-Confederate states to their former position in the
Union. Then came the congressional reaction against the Reconstruction achieved by
altered power
the presidents. The return of ex-Confederates to high offices and the passage of the
relationships. Black Codes by southern legislatures angered the Republicans in Con-gress. Thus
began a second phase, or second round, in which Congress imposed upon the South
its own version of Reconstruction. Rejecting presidential Recon-struction, Congress
adopted a plan that was harsher on southern whites and more protective of freed
blacks.

Radical Republicans…There had long been a division in Republican ranks between (1)
moderates, who were chiefly concerned with economic gains for the white middle class,
and (2) radicals, who championed civil rights for blacks. Although most Republicans
were moderates, they shifted toward the radical position in 1866 partly out of fear that
a reunified Democratic party might again become dominant. After all, now that the
federal census counted blacks as equal to whites (no longer applying the old
three-fifths rule for slaves), the South would have more representatives in Congress
than before the war and more strength in the electoral college in future presidential
elections.

Congressional Reconstruction continued…

Key Concepts
& Main Ideas Notes Analysis

Adapted from R. Richardson

Efforts by radical and
moderate Republicans Civil Rights Act of 1866…With some modifications, Republicans were able to override What was the primary
to reconstruct the Johnson’s vetoes of both the Freedmen’s Bureau Act and the first Civil Rights Act. The purpose of the 14th
defeated South changed Civil Rights Act pronounced all African Americans to be U.S. citizens (thereby Amendment?
the balance of power repudiating the decision in the Dred Scott case) and also attempted to provide a legal
between Congress and shield against the operation of the southern states’ Black Codes. Republicans feared,
however, that the law could be repealed if the Democrats ever won control of Congress.
the presidency and
They therefore looked for a more permanent solution in the form of a constitutional
yielded some
amendment.
short-term successes,
reuniting the union,
opening up political By defining citizens as
opportunities and other anyone born in the United
leadership roles to States, how did this
former slaves, and Amendment create future
temporarily rearranging Fourteenth Amendment…when ratified in 1868, was to have both immediate and long-term conflict?
the relationships significance for all segments of American society. The Four-teenth Amendment Declared
between white and that all persons born or naturalized in the United States were citizens Obligated the
black people in the states to respect the rights of U.S. citizens and provide them with “equal protection of
South. the laws” and “due process of law” (clauses full of meaning for future generations) For
the first time, in other words, the states (not just the U.S. government) were required by
the U.S. Constitution to uphold the rights of citizens. Other parts of the Fourteenth
The constitutional Amendment applied specifically to Congress’ plan of Reconstruction. These clauses
changes of the Disqualified former Confederate political leaders from holding either state or federal
Reconstruction period offices Repudiated the debts of the defeated governments of the Confederacy Penalized
embodied a Northern a state if it kept any eligible person from voting by reducing that state’s proportional
idea of American representation in Congress and the electoral college
identity and national
Report of the Joint Committee…In June 1866, a joint committee of the House and the
purpose and led to
Senate issued a report recommending that the reorganized former states of the
conflicts over new Confederacy were not entitled to representation in Congress. Therefore, those elected
definitions of from the South as senators and representatives should not be permitted to take their
citizenship, particularly seats. The report further asserted that Congress, not the president, had the authority to
regarding the rights of determine the conditions for allowing reconstructed states to rejoin the Union. By this
African Americans, report, Congress officially rejected the presidential plan of Reconstruction and promised
women, and other to substitute its own plan, part of which was embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment.
minorities.
The Election of 1866…Unable to work with Congress, Johnson took to the road in the fall
of 1866 in his infamous “swing around the circle” to attack his congressional
opponents. His speeches appealed to the racial prejudices of whites by saying that equal
rights for blacks would result in an “Africanized” society. Republicans counterattacked
by accusing Johnson of being a drunkard and a traitor. They appealed to anti southern
prejudices by employing a campaign tactic known as “waving the bloody
shirt”—inflaming the hatreds of northern voters by reminding them of the hardships of
war. Republican propaganda made much of the fact that southerners were Democrats
and, by a gross jump in logic, branded the entire Democratic party as a party of
rebellion and treason. Election results gave the Republicans an overwhelming victory.
After 1866, Johnson’s political enemies—both moderate and radical Republicans— would
have commanding control of Congress with more than a two-thirds majority in both the
House and the Senate.

Adapted from R. Richardson

Johnson accused Radical Republicans of planting hecklers, inciting riots, including the New Orleans Riot, and of wanting to keep the nation divided rather than
re-uniting it.
After Johnson compared himself to Jesus by saying that like the Savior, he too liked to pardon repentant sinners, his remaining speeches were drowned out by
hecklers.  State government officials refused to be seen with him. In the midterm elections that November, so disgusted were most Americans at Andrew
Johnson that Republicans won two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress.  The GOP was then able to enact legislation to “rescue” southern states from the
“neo-Confederate” Democrats. Thus began Radical Reconstruction.

Congressional Reconstruction continued…

Key Concepts & Main Ideas Notes Analysis

Efforts by radical and Reconstruction Acts of 1867…Over Johnson’s vetoes, Congress passed three Explain how the” Swing Around
moderate Republicans to Reconstruction acts in early 1867, which took the drastic step of placing the the Circle” affected Radical
reconstruct the defeated South under military occupation. The acts divided the former Confederate Republican attitudes toward
states into five military districts, each under the control of the Union army. In Johnson.
South changed the
addition, the Reconstruction acts increased the requirements for gaining
balance of power
readmission to the Union. To win such readmission, an ex-Confederate state
between Congress and the had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and place guarantees in its
presidency and yielded constitution for granting the franchise (right to vote) to all adult males,
some short-term regardless of race.
successes, reuniting the
union, opening up
political opportunities and
other leadership roles to
former slaves, and
temporarily rearranging
the relationships
between white and black
people in the South.
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson…Also in 1867, over Johnson’s veto, Congress
passed the Tenure of Office Act. This unusual (and probably unconstitutional)
Radical Republicans’ law prohibited the president from removing a federal official or military
efforts to change southern commander without the approval of the Senate. The purpose of the law was
Adapted from R. Richardson
racial attitudes and culture
and establish a base for
their party in the South
ultimately failed, due both
to determined southern
resistance and to the
North’s waning resolve.
Although citizenship,
equal protection of the
laws, and voting rights
were granted to African
Americans in the 14th and
15th Amendments, these
rights were progressively
stripped away through
segregation, violence,
Supreme Court
decisions, and local
political tactics.
The Civil War
Amendments
established judicial
principles that were
stalled for many decades
but eventually became
the basis for court
decisions upholding civil
rights.
4. Reconstruction in the South, pp 298-300
Adapted from R. Richardson
strictly political. Congress wanted to protect the Radical Republicans in
Johnson’s cabinet, such as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was in Explain how Radical Reconstruction
charge of the military governments in the South. Believing the new law to be illustrated the continued conflict
unconstitutional, Johnson challenged it by dismissing Stanton on his own between contract and compact
authority. The House responded by impeaching Johnson, charging him with 11 political theories.
“high crimes and misdemeanors.” Johnson thus became the first president to
be impeached. (Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998.) In 1868, after a
three-month trial in the Senate, Johnson’s political enemies fell one vote short
of the necessary two-thirds vote required to remove a president from office.
Seven moderate Republicans joined the Democrats against conviction, because
they thought it was a bad precedent to remove a president for political
reasons.
Reforms After Grant’s Election…The impeachment and trial of Andrew Johnson
occurred in 1868, a presi-dential election year. At their convention, the
Democrats nominated another candidate, Horatio Seymour, so that Johnson’s
presidency would have ended soon in any case, with or without impeachment
by the Republicans.
The Election of 1868…At their convention, the Republicans turned to a war
hero, giving their presidential nomination to General Ul y sses S. Grant, even
though Grant had no political experience. Despite Grant’s popularity in the
North, he managed to win only 300,000 more popular votes than his
Democratic opponent. The votes of 500,000 blacks gave the Republican ticket
its margin of victory. Even the most moderate Republicans began to realize
that the voting rights of the freedmen needed federal protection, if their party
hoped to keep control of the White House in future elections.
Fifteenth Amendment…Republican majorities in Congress acted quickly in
1869 to secure the vote for African Americans. Adding one more
Reconstruc-tion amendment to those already adopted (the Thirteenth
Amendment in 1865, and the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868), Congress
passed the Fifteenth Amend-ment, which prohibited any state from denying or
abridging a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.”
Civil Rights Act of 1875…The last of many civil rights reforms enacted by
Congress in the Reconstruction era was the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This
law guaranteed equal accommodations in public places (hotels, railroads, and
theaters) and prohibited courts from excluding African Americans from juries.
The law was poorly enforced, however, because by this time, moderate and
conservative Republicans had become frustrated with trying to reform an
unwill-ing South—and also were afraid of losing white votes in the North. As
we shall see, the abandonment of Reconstruction was only two years away.
Key Concepts & Main Ideas Notes Analysis

Efforts by radical and Reconstruction in the South…During the second round of Reconstruction, Based on this information, explain
moderate Republicans to dictated by Congress, the Republican party in the South reorganized and why Texas did not rejoin the Union
reconstruct the defeated dominated the governments of the ex-Confederate states. Beginning in 1867, until 1873.
South changed the each Republican-controlled government was under the military protection of the
balance of power U.S. Army until such time as Congress was satisfied that a state had met its
Reconstruction requirements. Then the troops were withdrawn. The period of
between Congress and the
Republican rule in a southern state lasted from as little as one year
presidency and yielded
(Tennessee) to as much as nine years (Florida), depending on how long it took
some short-term conservative Democrats to regain control.
successes, reuniting the
union, opening up political
opportunities and other
leadership roles to former
slaves, and temporarily
rearranging the
relationships between
white and black people
in the South.

Reconstruction in the South Continued…

Key Concepts & Main Notes Analysis

Ideas

Efforts by radical Composition of the Reconstruction Governments…In every radical, or Republican, Explain two forces that led to African
and moderate state government in the South except one, whites were in the majority in both American suffrage and public service
Republicans to houses of the legislature. The exception was South Carolina, where the freedmen despite Southern resistance.
reconstruct the controlled the lower house in 1873. Republican legislators included native-born
defeated South white southerners, freemen, and recently arrived northerners.
changed the balance
of power between
Congress and the
presidency and
yielded some Scalawags and Carpetbaggers…Democratic opponents gave nick-names to their
short-term successes, hated Republican rivals. They called southern Republicans “scalawags'' and
reuniting the union, northern newcomers “carpetbaggers.” Southern whites who supported the
opening up political Republican governments were usually former Whigs who were interested in
opportunities and economic development for their state and peace between the sections.
other leadership roles Northerners went South after the war for various reasons. Some were investors
to former slaves, and interested in setting up new businesses, while others were missionaries and
temporarily teachers who went with humanitarian goals. In an age of greed and graft, no
rearranging the doubt some also went to plunder. Support, refute, or modify the following
relationships statement: Radical Republicans worked
for positive change in the best interest
between white and
of all citizens. Write a complete thesis
black people in the
and defend your answer!
South.
African American Legislators…Most of the blacks who held elective office in
Radical the reconstructed state governments were educated property holders who took
Republicans’ moderate positions on most issues. During the Reconstruction era, Republicans
efforts to change in the South sent two black senators (Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels) and
southern racial more than a dozen black representatives to Congress. Revels was elected in
attitudes and 1870 to take the Senate seat from Mississippi once held by Jefferson Davis.
The fact that blacks and former slaves were in positions of power in the South
culture and
caused bitter resentment among disfranchised ex-Confederates.
establish a base for
their party in the Evaluating the Republican Record…Much controversy still surrounds the
South ultimately legislative record of the Republicans during their brief control of southern state
Adapted from R. Richardson
failed, due both to politics. Did they abuse their power for selfish ends (plunder and corruption), or
determined did they govern responsibly in the public interest? The judgment of history is
southern resistance that they did some of both. To what extent was sharecropping an
economic and social improvement for
and to the North’s
Accomplishments…On the positive side of the ledger, Republican legisla-tors African American farm workers in the
waning resolve. liberalized state constitutions in the South by providing for universal male South? Defend your answer!
suffrage, property rights for women, debt relief, and modernized penal codes.
The 13th They also promoted the building of roads, bridges, railroads, and other internal
Amendment improvements. They established such needed state institutions as hospitals and
abolished slavery, asylums for the care of the handicapped. The reformers established
bringing about the state-supported public school systems in the South, which benefited whites and
war’s most dramatic blacks alike. To pay for these measures, tax systems were overhauled and
bonds were issued.
social and economic
change, but the Failures…After Reconstruction ended, it was long popular in the South (and
exploitative and even among some northern historians) to depict Republican rule as utterly
soil-intensive wasteful and corrupt. To be sure, instances of graft and wasteful spending did
sharecropping occur, as Republican politicians took advantage of their power to take kickbacks
system endured for and bribes from contractors who did business with the state. It is also clear
several generations. that such corrupt practices in the South were no worse than the corruption
practiced in the Grant administration in Washington; nor were they worse than
the graft that was rife in the northern states and cities. No geographic section,
political party, or ethnic group was immune to the general decline in ethics in
government that marked the postwar era.

African Americans Adjusting to Freedom…Undoubtedly, the group of southerners

who had the greatest adjustment to make during the Reconstruction era were
the freedmen and freedwomen. Having been so recently emancipated from
slavery, they were faced with the challenge of securing their economic survival
as well as their political rights as citizens.

Building Black Communities…Freedom meant many things to southern blacks:

reuniting families, learning to read and write, migrating to cities where “freedom
was free-er”—but most of all, emancipation was viewed as an oppor-tunity for
achieving independence from white control. This drive for autonomy was most
evident in the founding of hundreds of independent black churches after the
war. By the hundreds of thousands, African Americans left white-dominated
churches for the Negro Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal churches. It
was during Reconstruction that black ministers became leading figures in the
black community.

Sharecropping…The South’s agricultural economy was in turmoil after the war,

in part because a compulsory labor force was gone. At first, white landowners
attempted to force freed blacks into signing contracts to work the fields. These
contracts set terms that nearly bound the signer to permanent and unrestricted
labor—in effect, slavery by a different name. Black insistence on autonomy,
however, combined with changes in the postwar economy, led white landowners
to adopt a system based on tenancy and sharecropping. Under sharecropping,
the landlord provided the seed and other needed farm supplies in return for a
share (usually half) of the harvest. While this system gave poor people of the
rural South (whites as well as blacks) the opportunity to work a piece of land
for themselves, sharecroppers usually remained either dependent on the
landowners or in debt to local merchants. By 1880, no more than 5 percent of
southern blacks had managed to realize their dreams of becoming independent
landowners. In a sense, sharecropping had evolved into a new form of servitude.

5. The North During Reconstruction, pp300-302

Adapted from R. Richardson
Key Concepts & Main Ideas
Efforts by radical and
moderate Republicans to
reconstruct the defeated
South changed the
balance of power
between Congress and the
presidency and yielded
some short-term
successes, reuniting the
union, opening up political
opportunities and other
leadership roles to former
slaves, and temporarily
rearranging the
relationships between
white and black people
in the South.
FROM PERIOD 6
CONTENT OUTLINE:
Gilded Age politics were
intimately tied to big
business and focused
nationally on economic
issues — tariffs, currency,
corporate expansion, and
laissez-faire economic
policy — that engendered
numerous calls for reform.
Corruption in government
— especially as it related to
big business — energized
the public to demand
increased popular control
and reform of local, state,
and national governments,
ranging from minor changes
to major overhauls of the
capitalist system.
6. The End of Reconstruction, pp302-303
Key Concepts & Main Ideas
Radical Republicans’
efforts to change
southern racial attitudes
and culture and establish
a base for their party in
the South ultimately
Adapted from R. Richardson
Notes Analysis
The North During Reconstruction…The North’s economy in the postwar years FYI: The Grant years crossover
continued to be driven by the Industrial Revolution and the probusiness between Reconstruction Era and its
policies of the Republicans. As the South struggled to reorganize its house, the issues… to the Gilded Age and its
main concern of northerners seemed to be railroads, steel, labor problems, and issues. Some of the objectives for
money. this section are going to be
emphasized more in the next unit.
Rise of the Spoilsman…In the early 1870s, leadership of the Republican party
passed from the reformers (Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and Benjamin
Wade) to political manipulators such as Senators Roscoe Conklin of New York To what extent was the Panic of
and James Blaine of Maine. These politicians were masters of the game of 1873 responsible for the end of
patronage—giving jobs and government favors (spoils) to their supporters. Reconstruction. Defend your
answer!
Corruption in Business and Government…The postwar years were notori-ous
for the number of corrupt schemes devised by business bosses and political
bosses to enrich themselves at the public’s expense. In 1869, for example, two
Wall Street financiers, Jay Gould and James Fisk, obtained the help of President
Grant’s brother-in-law in a scheme to corner the gold market. The Treasury
Department broke the scheme but not before Gould had made a huge profit.
The Election of 1872…The scandals of the Grant administration drove
reform-minded Republicans to break with the party in 1872 and select Horace
Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, as their presidential candidate. The
Liberal Republicans advocated civil service reform, an end of railroad subsidies,
withdrawal of troops from the South, reduced tariffs, and free trade.
Surprisingly, the Demo-crats joined them and also nominated Greeley. The
regular Republicans countered by merely “waving the bloody shirt” again—and
it worked. Grant was reelected in a landslide. Weeks after his overwhelming
defeat, the luckless Horace Greeley died.
The Panic of 1873…Grant’s second term began with an economic disaster that
rendered thou-sands of northern laborers both jobless and homeless. In 1873
over speculation by financiers and overbuilding by industry and railroads led to
widespread business failures and depression. Debtors on the farms and in the
cities sought an inflationary, easy-money solution by demanding Greenback
paper money that was not supported by gold. In 1874, Grant finally decided to
side with the hard-money bankers and creditors who wanted a stable money
supply backed by gold and vetoed a bill calling for the release of additional
Greenbacks.
Notes Analysis
The End of Reconstruction…During Grant’s second term, it was apparent that Nathan Bedford Forest State Park in
Reconstruction had entered another phase, which proved to be its third and Tennessee has been under attack as
final round. With Radical Republicanism on the wane, southern a movement to change its name is
conservatives—known as re-deemers—took control of one state government underway. Support or refute the
after another. This process was completed by 1877. The redeemers had assertion that historical monuments
different social and economic backgrounds, but they agreed on their political and parks named after racists
program: states’ rights, reduced taxes, reduced spending on social programs, should be removed or renamed.
and white supremacy. Defend your view.
failed, due both to
determined southern
resistance and to the
North’s waning resolve.

White Supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan…During the period that Republicans
controlled state governments in the South, groups of southern whites organized
various secret societies to intimidate blacks and white reformers. The most
prominent of these was the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1867 by an
ex-Confederate general, Nathaniel Bedford Forrest. The “invisible empire” burned
black-owned buildings and flogged and murdered freedmen to keep them from
exercising their voting rights. In 1870, Congress in the Force Acts of 1870 and
1871 gave power to federal authorities to stop Ku Klux Klan violence and to
protect the civil rights of citizens in the South.

Adapted from R. Richardson

Key Concepts & Main Ideas Notes Analysis

The Amnesty Act of 1872…Seven years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox,

Radical Republicans’ many northerners were ready to put hatred of the Confederacy behind them. In his autobiography, U.S. Grant
efforts to change As a sign of the changing times, Congress in 1872 passed a general amnesty stated that his biggest regret was
act that removed the last of the restrictions on ex-Confederates, except for the removing the military… that they
southern racial attitudes
top leaders. The chief political consequence of the Amnesty Act was that it pulled out too soon. Support or
and culture and establish allowed southern conserva-tives to vote for Democrats to retake control of refute this viewpoint. Defend your
a base for their party in state governments. answer!
the South ultimately
failed, due both to
determined southern
resistance and to the The Election of 1876…By 1876, federal troops had been withdrawn from all but
three southern states—South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The Democrats
North’s waning resolve.
had returned to power in all ex-Confederate states except these. This fact was
to play a critical role in the presidential election.

The Compromise of 1877…An informal deal was finally worked out between the
two parties. Hayes would become president on the condition that he would (1)
immediately end federal support for the Republicans in the South and also (2)
support the building of a southern transcontinental railroad. Shortly after his
inauguration, President Hayes fulfilled his part in the Compromise of 1877. He
promptly withdrew the last of the federal troops protecting blacks and other
Republicans.

Adapted from R. Richardson